Early Days
by DawnRedd
Summary: Lola is your average young adult who enjoys singing, dancing and having a good time. After being convinced to upload song covers to the internet by her roommate Leon, Lola discovers what it is she wants to do with her life. [Takes place before VOCALOID, this is my version of how it began.]
1. Chapter 1

_Story notes: Takes place before VOCALOID. follows the life of LOLA and LEON, and their journey on becoming the first VOCALOIDs.  
LOLA and LEON have been best friends since school and now live together in an apartment._

 **My first fic,** ** _Faded Crossways,_** **will still be continued, but I felt like working on my second on-going fic. None of these characters belong to me! I hope you enjoy my new story, favourite, follow and review! xx**

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"Lola! For god's sake! Get up!"

Lola rolled onto her stomach and groaned loudly. "Go away, Leon.." She lazily grabbed a cushion from her bed and threw it in his direction.

"C'mon Lola, i'm serious!" Leon huffed. "You've barely had this job a week and you're going to get yourself fired already." He picked the cushion up off the floor and threw it back at the bed, where it landed on Lola's backside. "It took you long enough to get this job, I highly doubt you'll find another one soon - plus you'll get a reputation for slacking. Now get up, it's almost 8am."

With that, Lola decided it probably would be a good idea to what Leon was telling her. She got out of her bed, grabbed her work clothes and headed into the bathroom to get changed. She may have lived with Leon during high school, and they have always shared accommodation since then but she still didn't feel comfortable changing in front of him.

While Lola was rushing to get ready, Leon was sat in their living area in his boxers and a tshirt. The flat was pretty small for two people, but it was enough space for a pair who had shared living arrangements for a few years. The 'living area' is actually a kitchen, dining room and living room merged into one - a long room with a kitchen unit on one end, a sofa, coffee table and TV on the other end, and a patio set in between. Other than the main room, there are two very small bedrooms and a bathroom without a bath - there is a shower, though.

Leon slouched on the couch, stetching his legs in attempt to push the television remote towards himself using his feet. After several failed attempts, he gave up and left his legs on the coffee table next to the remote.

A loud thud came from behind where Leon was sitting - the doors in their apartment seemed to make an awful lot of noise. Lola bounded out of the bathroom in her work uniform, holding a hair brush in one hand, and her handbag in the other. "If your damn legs break that table then you're buying a new one!" She exclaimed while strutting to their kitchen area.

The kitchen was a complete mess. With Lola working, she never had the energy to clean it up. Technically, Leon was working too but he spent more time at home than Lona did. Lola could see Leon shuffling to sit up so she decided to grab the wet sponge out of the sink and thrown it in his direction. It landed directly on the base of his neck, and he let out a loud shriek.

"Learn to get off your lazy ass and clean the kitchen! Gosh, Leon!" Lola smirked and wiped her hands dry on a tea towel. "Right, i'm off to work. Later!" She quickly swiped the hair brush through her hair, and threw it onto the counter before heading for the door.

"Meh, we'll see." Leon rolled his eyes. "Cya." He stood up, removed his shirt and removed the wet sponge from the sofa. "Maybe I should do some cleaning..." he muttered. Leon then shrugged his shoulders and sat back down on the sofa. "...later though."


	2. Chapter 2

**I think this will be a laid back fic - much less dramatic than my other current fic. Hope you enjoy!**

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After an hour or so of moping around on the sofa, Leon decided that he should be doing something productive, starting with actually getting dressed. He stumbled over to his bedroom and started rummaging around for something to wear. The black skinny jeans he had left on the floor from the night before still looked somewhat clean so he pulled those on, then shoved his hand into his wardrobe and grabbed the first shirt that hit his hand - a tshirt with "Who needs work when you look like me?" printed on the front, which is ironic since he technically does have a job.

For Leon, work is a breeze. It always has been. He skipped through school without any trouble and pretty much aced the subjects that he put his heart into - his results for classes such as science were a different story. Leon had always had a thing for technology - tinkering with different programs, drawing digitally, making dumb games on flash.. So because of this, he had taken a liking to ICT in school, which lead to a course in digital design. Rather than searching for work in a company, Leon runs his own small online business for website design.

Lola had always rolled her eyes, saying things like "Computer stuff is your hobby, you can't live off that forever. You need a real job, Leon." but that never deterred him. In his mind, nothing could be better than doing something you enjoy for a living. Lola and Leon have very different outlooks of work. Leon is happy with what he is doing, and Lola slacks due to loss of interest, causing her to find a new job which she only loses interest in again.

Now fully dressed, Leon finally got around to doing some house work. He put the sponge back in the kitchen, washed the dishes and stacked them to dry, put away miscellaneous items that were lying around, then mopped the kitchen. Unlike a lot of people, Leon actually didn't mind doing house chores since there wasn't much else to do around the house anyway.

Once he had finished, he retrieved his laptop from out of his room and crashed on the sofa with it. Leon almost never sat upright on the sofa, he preferred laying across it, which annoys Lola greatly. But of course she isn't here so he could do as he pleases. He opened up his laptop and booted it up, ready to check if he had any customers enquiring about his website creating service.

His business wasn't exactly thriving, but it wasn't dead either. Luckily, usually his customers need a whole website created so he is able to make plenty of money - though he finds himself more than disappointed when someone only needs one page, or something puny like a banner. He had already created a hefty bunch of things for people. Mainly web portfolios for artists and photographers.

Laptop booted, internet connected and emails loading... Nothing. No new customers. Just the usual feedback and questions which most of the time have already been answered on the 'frequently asked questions' section of his business' website. Usually he'd sit and read through his emails, replying to each of them. But that's what he's in a good mood. It's hard to be in a good mood when you have no customers. He let out a long sigh and placed his laptop on the coffee table, then continued to laze around.

He would never admit it to Lola, but often when she was out working, she would be on his mind. Not in a weird way, but in the fact that Leon worried for her. She would always lecture him on how he doesn't have a real career, but she didn't once admit that it was in fact herself that didn't have a stable career. But if Leon were to say "you can't keep swapping between bars and cafés all your life, you'll run out of places that you haven't been fired from.", she'd probably kick him out.

Leon wished that he could help. He wished that he could just find out what it is that Lola is passionate about, like how he is passionate about creation, and technology. He wished that he didn't have to see her lose her confidence when she got fired for slacking. He wished that joking about her slacking wasn't the only way to cope with the fact that she was a slacker. He just wanted her to do well at something. Anything.

Still lay on the sofa, he let out a sigh and stared up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what to do. "Lola can't do this forever. She'll go mad." he muttered to himself. He rolled over, getting himself comfortable. "Or i'll go mad. Not sure yet." He tucked a cushion underneath his head, and fell asleep.

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 **Thanks for reading! xxx**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry I haven't uploaded in a while, I've had a lot going on! I'll try to update this more often from now on. Happy new year! :)**

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There was a brief jangle of keys heard from the other side of the front door before it swung open. Leon was sitting properly on the sofa at this point, leaning forward to read from his laptop which was still on the coffee table. He swivelled slightly and turned his head to check the door - he knew it was Lola, nobody else had a key.

Leon narrowed his eyebrows slightly as he saw the defeated look on Lola's face. "Hey, you're late. Busy day today?" he asked as he hopped off the sofa and paced towards their kitchenette to put the kettle on. Lola just shrugged as she closed the front door behind herself. There was a brief silence between the two of them as the kettle boiled, Leon retrieved two mugs from the cupboard and the milk from the fridge as he awaited a reply from his room-mate.

"Thanks for cleaning." Lola said bluntly as she placed her keys down on the counter-top. Leon nodded at her with a smile, hoping that she'd answer his question. He put a teabag in each mug, poured in the boiled water and propped his elbows onto the counter as he waited for the tea to brew. "Well.." Lola rolled her eyes, "I hate my job, I want to quit already."

"Lola.." Leon sighed, "You always say that. No matter what job you have, you're not happy. If you want to make money, which you need to if you want to survive, you're just going to have to suck it up. Work is work, you're not meant to enjoy it." After pouring milk into one of the mugs, he pulled a draw open to get a teaspoon, closed it again and started stirring the contents of the mugs.

"I guess you're right." Lola shrugged, pulling the mug containing the black tea towards herself as Leon stirred a few teaspoons of sugar into his tea. "But you enjoy your job, right? I want that too. I'm sick of going from bar to bar and being hit on by sleazy drunk guys for crap money. It's a joke." Leon shrugged, draining his teabag and tossing it into the bin.

"That's because.." Leon paused to take a sip of his tea. "I pushed myself. I didn't want to be pushed around by some corporation so I became my own boss, you know that. It isn't the best money but I'm getting by." He paused again to take another sip. "You're talking as if my job is the most fun thing ever, Lola. Some days I don't even get customers, and on those days I don't get paid." She rolled her eyes at him.

"At least you're good at your job. At least people are willing to come to you and ask you specifically to do work for them. Look at me. I have to stand around behind a bar coping with all these drunkards, it doesn't help that I'm forced to wear a dress, either. Honestly, I only ever get criticism, today my boss got so pissed at me that I thought he was going to fire me there and then. You know what happened?" Lola glared at Leon, he shrugged his shoulders and sipped his tea. "Some drunken sleaze-bag tried to touch me. I ended up dropping a tray of drinks because I was trying to defend myself. Six glasses, Leon." By this point, Leon was hiding his expression behind his mug as he was trying to hold back a chuckle. "They all smashed. I got soaked in beer. Some idiots cheered and hollered. Can you imagine how embarrassed I was, Leon? My boss was pissed. He said I've been doing jobs like this long enough to put up with the rowdy customers."

Leon lowered his mug and frowned slightly. "Lola.." He felt guilty. Guilty that she isn't happy, guilty that they're even having this conversation. He knew that she doesn't like bar work, it was obvious from her expression after she came home from work every day. He felt guilty that he can spend hours upon end lying on the sofa while she's having a terrible time, dealing with people who he doesn't thing are even worthy of meeting her.

She shook her head. "Nah. Doesn't matter. It's just a job, huh? As long as I'm making money so I survive." After saying this, she remained silent as she continued to drink her tea. "I'm going to take a shower." Lola blurted after finishing her drink. She placed her mug on the counter then went into her room to grab a change of clothes, then headed into the bathroom where she closed the door behind herself.

Once Lola was in the shower, Leon finished off his tea and washed up the mugs and teaspoon. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with the rest of his day so he sat back down on the sofa, remembering to pick up the remote this time. After much channel surfing, he decided to mute the TV and pull his laptop onto his lap. Much to his dismay, his laptop had switched itself off due to lack of battery. Leon put the laptop back onto the table, got up and trailed across the living area over to his bedroom. Before entering his bedroom, he thought he could hear something.

He stood still for a moment, listening intently. It was clearly Lola's voice so he inched towards the bathroom door slowly to get a better listen. She was singing. Lola loved singing, or at least she used to. She was part of the choir during middle school but was discouraged by other students so she quit the choir and stopped singing. Leon was always supportive of her voice, even if she wasn't the best at singing back then but right now was different. She hadn't sang in front of anyone since she quit choir, not even Leon.

Leon took another step towards the bathroom door and lightly pressed his ear up against it to listen better. It had been years since he had heard her singing voice. Leon smiled to himself happily, singing was something Lola had been so passionate about in school so it was refreshing to hear that she hadn't given it up completely. She had improved a lot since those days. Leon closed his eyes as he listened, letting the nostalgia fill his mind.

Just then, there was a sharp click. Before he could do anything to stop what was about to unravel, the door opened and Leon went hurtling into the bathroom. Despite his efforts to grab onto something, anything, he ended up falling to the floor. He had been so indulged in her singing that he had completely forgotten that the latchbolt doesn't fully click into place, meaning that if any pressure is applied to the door, then it will slip out of place. It had never been a big deal so they didn't bother having it fixed, neither of them had anticipated a situation like this.

Lola, obviously shocked by the tall man who had stumbled sideways into the bathroom and fallen to the floor. She quickly grabbed the towel from the rail next to the shower and screeched at him "What the hell are you doing?! Leon! Get out!" Leon had a dumb bewildered look on his face as his pushed himself off the floor slightly, looking up at Lola who was barely being covered by the towel that she had grabbed. He found himself staring at her and it took him a moment to realise just what was going on. "Leon!" Lola screeched for a second time. Leon quickly clambered to his feet and dashed out the door, slamming it behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

**Thanks for the reviews, guys! Enjoy! :)**

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There was tension in the air following the incident. Leon sat on the sofa, aimlessly browsing the internet on his laptop to distract himself. He obviously hadn't meant to go in the bathroom while Lola was showering but it was now something that he couldn't undo. Tapping his fingers lightly on the keyboard, he decided to check his emails again in-case he had any new enquiries. There were two or three more questions and the usual hoard of junk mail that got through the filter. As he scrolled through his mail, he noticed one new business inquiry but since it was past what he refers to as his 'work hours', he decided that he'd look at it tomorrow.

Soon after, Lola came out of the bathroom and strutted to the kitchen. Leon took a deep breath and turned his body slightly to watch her. Lola was pacing back and forth, she had obviously noticed that he was looking at her but she decided to ignore him and continued to pace around the kitchenette somewhat aggressively.

"Lola..?" Leon quickly turned back to place the laptop on the coffee table then stood up, turning himself again to face Lola. "Look, I didn't mean to, okay? I was just.." Leon stopped talking as he wasn't sure whether she was actually listening or not since she was still pacing around the kitchenette. "Lola?"

"What?" Lola stopped pacing and glared at Leon. "Why did you think it was okay to barge into the bathroom like that?" Leon had a worried look on his face, unsure of how exactly he was meant to explain what actually happened. "So..?" She crossed her arms and maintained the stern expression on her face. Lola didn't usually get mad, she was somewhat laid back but she felt that Leon had crossed the line this time, so she couldn't help but lose her temper.

"I was just listening to you singing." Leon shrugged, avoiding an in-depth explanation just in case he dug himself into a deeper hole. He shifted his gaze to the side, feeling slightly embarrassed about the whole situation.

"...You what?" She hadn't actually anticipated that he'd have heard her singing. It's not a surprise that he would have heard her considering how thin the walls in the apartment are but she hadn't expected him to be interested in her singing. If anything, she had just expected that he barged in on purpose because he was being perverted.

"Yeah." He nodded. "I was listening to you sing in the shower and I forgot about the lock on the door. That's all." Leon shrugged again. They both stood in silence for a while before Leon started talking again. "You know I like your singing voice, Lola."

"Leon.." Lola started with a slight sigh. "You haven't heard me sing since school, you can't say you like my singing." She shook her head softly

Leon shook his head. "That's why I was listening. I haven't heard you sing in so long, I couldn't believe it, really." He shrugged and walked over to where Lola was so he didn't need to talk as loud. "I swear I didn't mean to barge in."

The pair stayed quiet for a while, standing in the kitchenette in silence. "I'm going out." Lola sighed, as she walked over to her bedroom, slipping on her shoes and coat before she headed back out and towards the door. "I need to cool off, I'll talk to you later, alright?" Leon nodded but she had gone before he had chance to reply, or ask where she was going. He walked lazily back over to the sofa and flopped down onto it.

"I'm such an idiot.." He muttered to himself, letting out a deep sigh. He planned to wait for Lola to come back so he went back onto his laptop and passed some time browsing the web.

Night soon arrived and since there was no sign of Lola, he gave up and decided to go to bed.

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The next morning, Leon was woken by his usual 6AM alarm and Lola was the first thing on his mind. He wondered if she's okay, what time she got back, and if she even came back at all. He grumbled to himself at the negative thoughts as he sat up. After stumbling out of bed, he picked his black skinny jeans off the floor and put them on for the third day in a row since he wasn't in the mood to find himself a pair that were clean. Then as usual he opened his wardrobe and pulled out the first top that he could grasp, this time it was a tshirt with "I know HTML (How To Meet Ladies)" printed on the front - which was also ironic since he never has luck with women. He slipped the tshirt on over his bare chest and left his bedroom.

The first thing Leon noticed upon leaving his room was that Lola wasn't in the living room. Then again, it was barely past 6am and Lola was a heavy sleeper so he wasn't surprised. He walked over to Lola's bedroom door and turned the handle gently, pushing the door open slightly just to rest his mind on whether or not she had made it home safely. As he peeked his head inside, he saw that she was sleeping peacefully. Feeling relieved, Leon closed her door and left to continue his usual morning routine.

Once he had brushed his hair, brushed his teeth and made himself his usual morning coffee, he went over and sat in his usual place in the living room ready to check his laptop for potential customer emails. Remembering that he had received an email late the day before, he eagerly logged into his emails to see what work he would have for the next few days. Leon opened up the email and scanned his eyes over the brief.

 _To whoever it may concern,_

 _I am a newly appointed talent scout.  
Although I am yet to hire anybody for my agency, I would like a website for future clients to have access to information regarding my work.  
Attached is all of the details for my company, along with sketches of potential designs for aspects of my site.  
Do get in touch so we can discuss this further._

 _Regards, Masuta.  
President of VOCALOID Talent Agency._

Leon couldn't believe his eyes. A talent scout. He cracked his knuckles and opened up the attachments, once again scanning his eyes over all of the details. Soon enough, he had opened a new email and was tapping his fingers away at the keyboard, typing out a reply eagerly. Usually he wasn't this excited for his work this early in the morning but he had many thoughts flying over his mind. The main thought was that if this talent scout is already looking for potential clients, then he could possibly talk Lola into sending some samples.

Leon suddenly stopped typing to take some deep breaths to calm himself down, when he felt a presence near. He looked over his shoulder to see Lola standing in her bedroom doorway, rubbing the side of her face.

"Good morning." He smiled at her. "You're up early."

"What're you typing so frantically for?" She crossed her arms and took a few paces forward until she was stood beside him. "Have you gotten in trouble again? Like that one time you put pasted smut onto a corporation's 'about' page as a place-holder and forgot to replace it with what they had actually sent you to put there? And you published their website? And hundreds of people saw their website on launch day? And hundreds of people complained that there was a very detailed sex scene where they had expected to learn about the company? Good times."

"I was tired, okay! They should have atleast taken it as a joke, sheesh!" Leon shook his head with a slight smirk on his face. "Anyway, I'll tell you in a bit - I can't talk now - I need to get this reply done perfectly." He smiled at her again briefly before looking back at his laptop, ready to continue his reply email.

"Ohh.." Lola sang happily. "Sounds important, then. I mean, for you to be willing to work this early in the morning, it must be." She skipped over to the kitchen, searching the cupboards for food. "I'm gonna grab some breakfast then i'm heading out, alright? Gonna meet up with the girls before work."

"Uh-huh.." Leon nodded, too engrossed in writing his email to process an actual reply.


End file.
